GDC Found Art

I’ve recently been showing you (y’all) various interactive thingymajobbers that can be engaged with on the web. And, I… seem to be unable to stop myself.

I attended the Game Developer’s Conference last week. Normally this is an excruciatingly pleasant affair for me; I really dig swimming around in academic-style higher-learning thinking, and reminding myself of the fundamentals of what we do.

This year? Not so much. I was fighting a flu of some kind, and when I get sick I get stupid. So, I missed most of the talks I wanted to see, the talks I did see sucked badly, and I just generally walked around and went “duuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh…”

However, I did find something I want to show you.

The Independant Games Festival (IGF) is a hoot; folks make games for free, and then compete for a cash prize and the prestige of their fellow game developers (which hopefully translates into some kind of distribution deal–HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA wipes tear from eye hooo, boy I crack myself up sometimes… no, seriously though, I think someone one time got some money for it, but I can’t confirm that).

The IGF benefits me directly, because I get to play their games. Most times, they are not so good. Lots of love there, but…

Common mistakes repeat themselves endlessly among the new initiates into the realm of entertainment making, and games are no exception to that. But, every once in a while, you get a rare gem. Something that could not ever possibly make money, but is so completely captivating that it can only be described as art.

Before you click on that, here’s a couple of hints to help you navigate the unbelievable overdone website. Click on the door, and then… don’t panic. Everything’s okay; the little window that just exploded and then resized itself is the game. I know, I know, it’s just a black window. Wait for it. Wait… wait… it’ll load. Do not try to click back to the main site; it’s useless to you now.

There you go. Now, as a favor to the latent stained glass artist in all of us, spend ten minutes with it.

Oh yeah, and turn the sound on. It’s just not the same game without the sound.

Here’s something that isn’t obvious until you’ve dumped four hours into it (like I might have done, I don’t really remember, it’s all a blur of color and light… so… beautiful…): there are several color layouts for each “window”. When you replay, you will likely have a completely different problem to solve than the first time you played it.

Not sure if you care that much. God knows I do. But, I’m starting to wonder about my sanity.

This Is A Custom Widget

This Sliding Bar can be switched on or off in theme options, and can take any widget you throw at it or even fill it with your custom HTML Code. Its perfect for grabbing the attention of your viewers. Choose between 1, 2, 3 or 4 columns, set the background color, widget divider color, activate transparency, a top border or fully disable it on desktop and mobile.

This Is A Custom Widget

This Sliding Bar can be switched on or off in theme options, and can take any widget you throw at it or even fill it with your custom HTML Code. Its perfect for grabbing the attention of your viewers. Choose between 1, 2, 3 or 4 columns, set the background color, widget divider color, activate transparency, a top border or fully disable it on desktop and mobile.